ashcroft



@uiten tette etrnt ffirr E. H. ASHGROFT, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS. Letters Patent No. 72,585, dated .December 24, 1867.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WASHING SHEEP-SKINS.

To ALL WHoM 1T MAY ooNeERN:

Be it known that I, E. H. ASHCROFT, of the city o'i Lynn, in the county of Essex, and State of Massachusetts,

have invented a new and improved Apparatus for Washing Sheep-Skins with the wool on; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, like parts being represented by like letters in the several p tigures.

The nature of my invention consists in washing sheep-skins havingjthc wool on, by machinery, to be hereafter described, by which the skins can be better Washed than by hand, as usual. Great economy of labor is effected, and the skin or pelt is rendered much more ilexible or pliable.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation. In the drawings- I v Figure 1 represents a side view of a revolving hollow wheel, A, having several apartments a made by radial divisions b, which have perforations c. This wheel is constructed on a central shaft, B, and can be revolved in any suitable manner, sueh as a belt, or by meansrof water acting on buckets d. This wheel .is supported by and revolves inside of a semieircular or other suitably-shaped tub c, which has perforations c in its bottom and sides. A

Figure 2 represents a transverse vertical section ot' wheel and tub.

Figure 8, a vertical longitudinal section ot` same; and

Figure 4 a side elevationof tub.

The wheel A has several perforations in its side, as seen atfand g, tne' iormer for the purpose ot putting the skinsthrough into the apartments of the Wheel, and the latter for the introduction of water into saidapartments by means of a pipe.

The operation is as follows: After the skins have been soaked a certain time, they are put into the several apartments of the wheel, and waterintroduced into the same, as said above, and the wheel then made to revolve. As it revolves, the skin drops from one radial division or partition to the next one of the same apartment, which cleanses it of dirt, at the same time rendering the skin more ilexible by a kind ot` slapping operation. The wheel is revolved until the skins are Well washed. The dirty Water runs out continually through the holes in the radial partitions, and the circular slots near the periphery of the wheel, and iually escapes through the perforations in bottom and sides of tub.

rlhe skins may also be Washed and broken by a wheel with rigid or flexible buckets, and as it turns in the semicircular tub, this being a modification oi' the process first described, the water to be supplied, in any convenient way. I

Having thus described myv invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent ofthe United States, is v An apparatus for Washing sheep-skins with the wool on, constructed and operated in the mannersubstantially as shown and described.

E. Il, ASHCROFT.

Witnesses:

EDWIN J. WRIGHT, Onis. E. Asncnorr. 

